Julia Donaldson MBE, 62, is the author of more than 120 books for children, including The Gruffalo, which has sold 10.5 million copies since its publication in 1999 and been adapted for stage in the West End and on Broadway. She began her career writing songs for children’s television, and the song A Squash and a Squeeze became her first book, in 1993, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, with whom she has worked ever since. Her new book, The Highway Rat, is out now (Alison Green Books). Donaldson is the Children’s Laureate for 2011-2013 (childrenslaureate.org.uk) and lives in Glasgow with her husband, Malcolm.

Mornings The alarm goes off at 7.15am and Malcolm and I have tea in bed. We have a convention that the one most in need gets the tea made for them – usually I am most in need. My ideal morning is to put in a couple of hours with a blank sheet of paper thinking up ideas, then go for a bracing walk or a swim and come back and see if any of the ideas will bear fruit. It doesn’t always work because of the number of emails that need answering.

Growing up My childhood certainly had an influence on what I ended up doing. My father gave me The Book of a Thousand Poems for my fifth birthday, and for a while I wanted to be a poet and wrote poetry for the school magazine. In those days everyone sang two hymns during assembly every day at school, and, like most middle-class children, I spent my early years listening to songs and nursery rhymes on Listen with Mother on the radio. It is no surprise that many of my books are written in rhyme because I was so immersed in rhyme and rhythm when I was growing up.

Pepito My granny read to us a lot when I was a child. She lived upstairs in the house I grew up in, in Hampstead. I particularly remember Pepito (pictured), a lovely story about a little Spanish boy who lives with his grandmother and goes off with a wicked gipsy girl. I love the pictures of the town with its steps and roof gardens. The first time I went to a European hill town like that, as an adult, I thought, 'Oh, it is just like Pepito.’ And whenever I was on a London bus I’d imagine where the loo, kitchen and bedroom could be, because in Pepito they do up a bus as a home.

Special object This lovely tactile book (pictured) was given to us when our first son, Hamish, was born. A nurse at Brighton hospital, where Malcolm [a paediatrician] was working at the time, made it, and I think it is so beautifully crafted with buttons and shoelace tails. It was one of the first books Hamish had, so it is a very special object to me [Hamish committed suicide in 2003, aged 25].

Charity work I am the patron of a charity called Artlink Central, which engages artists with disadvantaged groups in central Scotland. They work with a range of people, from psychiatric patients to children at risk of being expelled from school. Malcolm got carried away at the last fundraising auction, bidding for this papier-mâché zebra (pictured) made by one of the artists. I was worried about where we’d put it because it is rather large, but we have quite a grand hall and it gets compliments when people visit.

Library closures A lot of local councillors seem scared of not being voted in at the next election if the libraries close – it is brilliant that protests are having such an effect. As Children’s Laureate I am planning a big libraries tour next year to do sessions dramatising picture books with local schoolchildren. I want to illustrate the things that can and do happen in libraries; I don’t want to just swan in like the Queen.

Personal space When my sons, Alistair and Jerry, visit they tease me that I am slowly acquiring dominance of the whole house. I have a room off the kitchen (main picture) where I keep all the props for the stage shows I do of my books at literary festivals. Laura Burr, who worked in the marketing department at Macmillan until recently, and looked after the Gruffalo website, made the puppets and costumes for all the main characters. The Highway Rat should be arriving soon, and I am very excited to see him.

Memorabilia People often give me gifts that relate to my books. I was given a lovely silver stick-man bracelet after Stick Man was published, and a gold chain with a starfish on it after Zog was published, because Zog is given a gold star. My publishers gave me these fish-tail salad servers (pictured) when Tiddler came out, and I use them all the time. My favourite kind of cooking is rustling up salads.

On the wall Axel gives me an original illustration for each of the books we do together. One of my favourites (pictured) is one that didn’t quite work out for A Squash and a Squeeze. I think the editor thought the old lady’s nose was too near to the cow’s bottom or something.

Evenings We usually eat at about 7.15pm. It used to be that we’d eat after The Archers, but we have boycotted it since Nigel fell off the roof. I thought the audience was manipulated and it was unconvincing. It was done just for their 60th birthday and was really mean to the actor Graham Seed. But actually this is just an excuse because it was very dreary anyway. Malcolm and I go to German lessons in a pub two evenings a week and often end the day with a game of cards or Scrabble.